SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
Fnord666
on Thursday January 02 2020, @04:15AM
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
Mirrors have been an integral part of motor vehicles for over a century. The low tech solution has solved the major visibility issues involved with driving and now car makers think they can do one better using cameras instead of mirrors. This may be an improvement in large trucks where visibility using mirrors can be poor to the point that obstacles directly in front and behind the vehicle cannot be seen but for cars it may prove to be a theft opportunity.
Best not to mount a mirror, or indeed a camera, directly in the line of fire of a neighboring car door in the parking lot. Maybe someone should tell them about the practicalities of life?
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Cameras to Replace Mirrors on Cars and Trucks
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 58 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
-- Isaiah 56:12, New Standard Version
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @03:19PM (2 children)
Mirrors don't have bugs. They don't have failed firmware updates. They work in the pouring rain, freezing cold, they don't get instantly and completely obscured by splashing mud or corroded and destroyed by road salts, they don't require electricity. Even broken, they still offer partial functionnality. And they offer a 3D image.
If cameras and screens are the solution for all problems, why even keep windows ? Get rid of them, make cars continuous metal shells covered with cameras and full of screens.
You want to use technology in an actually usefull way ? Use it for augmented reality. Keep the mirrors and windshield, but overlay usefull information on them: road maps, navigation info, road hazard warnings, infrared night vision, animal avoidance systems, etc etc.
And when it all crashes (and it will crash, it always does), then you can still look out through the technologically primitive windshield, at the road lit up by the technologically primitive headlights.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @05:52PM
Mirrors have a lot of issues, for example, positioning them can be a problem, if you're slouching down to be comfortable, versus sitting upright at attention, that can require the mirrors to be re-positioned. They're also susceptible to being broken by cars driving by on narrow lanes, something that the cameras would have far less issues with as they'd likely be tighter to the side of the car. You'd likely have a minimum of 3 cameras, one for the left, one for the right and one for directly behind you and between the 3 of them, you'd likely have 100% coverage of what's not visible in front of you. You could have more cameras if needed, 5 or 6 wouldn't be a problem as stitching them together in real time is well within the capabilities of modern computer systems.
The main issue is handling situations where the system suddenly fails. But, given the number of cameras that are in use, the likelihood of that happening is relatively small and with more cameras, you're not likely to lose enough of them to be a problem while you make your way to a service station.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:54PM
Crawling all over them...
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?